May 18- Mega Leg Breaker

Victory On Yorks Hill

This was a ride I had planned to do some time ago. It took in four climbs featured in the book '100 Greatest Cycling Climbs',
( http://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Greatest-Cycling-Climbs-Cyclists/dp/0711231206), this is why I decided to call it the meg leg breaker ride, as it would require our legs getting us over four of the largest hills in our area. The ride began at Dene park forestry commission car park. We had trouble locating it, as the post code was correct but the google map was not. With four cars in convoy having to stop and turn around in the road several times before we eventually found it, was pretty stressful.We rode West initially on nice quiet gently undulating roads but on reaching a little place called Winkhurst Green, there was a sign warning of the first leg breaker hill ahead, 'Yorks Hill'. This was a 1.2 mile hill with an average gradient of just 6.3%, however on the final part of the climb it reached 16%. Both myself and Steve B found this to be our hardest ride of the day, maybe we had not paced it well enough? Next up was another famous leg breaker, Toy's Hill. We didn't realise that we would be turning left before the end of the climb so got to the top only to have to come back down again before turning right for some lumpy riding up to a place quaintly name Froghole.The next six miles gave our muscles a rest as they consisted of six flat miles which was just as well as suddenly the tallest hill of the day reared up, 'Chalkpit lane'. This had an average gradient of 7.9% but the final quarter reached over a 20% gradient. For most of us, this was the toughest climb of the day and eclipsed even Ditchling Beacon for height gained.We now lost most of that height as we plummeted down Titsey hill. Our next objective was to go up the infamous 'Chalkpit lane ' which joins the Titsey descent some way before the bottom. Unfortunately as we were decending so quickly, we missed the turn (which was far from obvious) and so had to climb back up. White lane was the shortest leg breaker of the day but also the second steepest, briefly reaching 19.9% at one point.A fantastic descent of seven miles followed before the last leg breaker hill of the day. This climb up to the top of Hubbards Hill was nice and steady and did not really deserve to be called  a leg breaker. Now began our favourite part of the whole ride, five miles of slightly downhill riding along the 'Greensand Way'. With hedge rows lining the road on both sides it gave us a tremendous sense of speed. After a 30 minute stop in a very posh (and expensive pub- sandwiches £8) we were treated to almost continuous down hill riding as we dropped from an altitude of 550ft back down to Tonbridge at 150 feet. John S reckoned this is the best route I have ever planned, who am I to argue? This is definitely   a classic which I aim to repeat next year. Thanks to John V, Steve B, Derek, Paul, John S, Simon G and Dan for making it such a great day

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The Infamous 'White Lane'